Booking direct with United or through OTA? What are the benefits?
I'm a MileagePlus Explorer Chase card-holder and travel a few times per year on StarAlliance flights, booking the cheapest fares. A lot of times, I end up going through Orbitz either buying packages (flight + hotel) or separate flight and hotel, depending on what's cheapest, since I can find better fares, apply discount codes, and get their cash back rewards for future hotel stays.
In the past, whenever I would book a package or flight on Orbitz and used my United Chase card, the flight would always appear as a *separate* charge on my credit card statement directly by the airline (e.g. "United"). This was ideal, because I would get to double dip: get the lower price and rewards of booking thru Orbitz AND get the 2x extra miles per dollar spent, etc, on my MileagePlus account.
After the Expedia acquisition, this seems to have changed at least for packages... Now there's a single charge by "Orbitz" or "Expedia"
Can anyone else confirm this? And does anyone know if this also happens for only flights purchased through Orbitz (i.e. not a package)? Does the charge show up from the airline or the OTA?